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Chatham man waited 11 years for Canadian flag

In 2004, Grade 8 student Kevin Aikenhead learned on a class trip to Ottawa that any Canadian resident could request a flag flying atop the Peace Tower. He did and it finally arrived last fall.

Kevin Aikenhead, the assistant facility manager at South Kent Wind, waited more than a decade for a Canadian flag that once flew atop the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. He christened it on Canada Day by flying it from a wind turbine in Chatham, Ont. (Kevin Aikenhead)

After the 15-foot by seven-foot Maple Leaf flag finally arrived after an 11-year wait, Kevin Aikenhead flew it from a wind turbine in Chatham. (Kevin Aikenhead)

It’s a moment for which he waited more than a decade — unpacking a Canadian flag.

In 2004, Grade 8 student Kevin Aikenhead learned on a class trip to Ottawa that any Canadian resident could request a flag flying atop the Peace Tower. Back home in Chatham, he wrote a letter to his MP to add his own name to the hundreds on the wait list for the next available Maple Leaf.

Eleven years later, he had almost given up hope of ever receiving his small piece of Canadian history. And then a mysterious package showed up on his parents’ doorstep last fall. “As soon as I open it up and see the red and the material of the flag, I knew right away what it was,” he said. “I sat there in the hallway in disbelief, thinking ‘Wow, I finally got it.’ ”

After all this time, waiting another nine months to christen it on Canada Day was a breeze. Now 26 and an assistant manager on a wind farm, Aikenhead flew the 15-foot by seven-foot Maple Leaf from a wind turbine.

If Aikenhead had ordered the flag today, he might have been able to celebrate its arrival with his grandkids. As of this spring, the wait time is 59-years long. Those in a hurry can settle for one of the other four Parliament Hill flags and receive it in an estimated 45 years.

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The flag atop the Peace Tower is replaced every workday and each time it is lowered to half-mast. That honour usually falls to Parliament Hill’s unofficial flag master, Robert Labonté.

The elaborate routine for changing the flag involves folding a new one into a satchel, taking an elevator up to the observation deck and climbing stairs and ladders to the top of the tower. Throughout, the flag isn’t meant to touch the ground.

“It’s a big flag so sometimes, with the wind howling, it can be a little tricky. But so far so good — so far we haven’t lost one,” he said.

In his six years on the job, he has added his own rituals. He fist bumps lion statues in the tower. He nods in the direction of Memorial Chamber, honouring Canadians who have died in battle. And he always takes a few seconds at the top to admire the view.

Labonté said about 1,500 Peace Tower flags have been given away so far. He requested a flag like everybody else — by writing to Public Services and Procurement Canada —a few years ago. With any luck, he will get one before retiring.

Aikenhead’s family never expected the flag to come since they hadn’t gotten a reply to Kevin’s letter addressed to his MP, said his Kevin’s father, Mike.

They were so excited the day it arrived they unfurled in outside to show their neighbours. It looked even larger in person, covering most of their two-car driveway.

The next Canada Day will be an even bigger occasion to hang the flag since it will mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

In the meantime, Aikenhead has stored it in his closet for safekeeping. He learned how to carefully fold a Canadian flag using instructions he found on the Canadian Armed Forces website.

He may take it out again before next Canada Day for two quintessentially Canadian events: a Tragically Hip concert in London this August and the World Cup of Hockey this fall.

For Aikenhead, the flag is a symbol of his happy childhood and reminder of his first trip to the nation’s capital. “And it’s cool to know how rare and hard it is to get one of these flags makes it special, too,” he said. “I love being Canadian.”

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